GRAND LAKE STREAM – By ordinary standards, Dave Huntress and Brian Foley were early risers on Tuesday morning.

Judged a bit differently – according to the time-honored tradition of opening-day anglers who flock to this fabled fishing hot spot, for instance – the two were nearly tardy.

Across the state, open-water fishing season began Tuesday morning. At Grand Lake Stream, a sleepy, one-store, no-stoplight town in the middle of the Maine woods, that means that a long winter is over … almost.

And getting to the famous Dam Pool early is a goal for many avid fly fishermen.

Note to Grand Lake Stream anglers: If you thought you smelled home fries cooking while you were wading early Tuesday morning, you didn’t. Really. You didn’t.

You smelled Foley.

More accurately, you smelled Foley’s car, a well-worn Mercedes sedan that has been retrofitted to burn used vegetable oil as well as diesel fuel.

After leaving Orono at around 4 a.m., Foley and Huntress burned some serious fat and pulled the veggie-mobile into the slushy parking lot early (for us) but late (for them).

“We got here late for opening day,” Foley said with a grin. “We pulled up at 6:30. Normally we’re here just when it’s light enough to begin casting.”

The veteran anglers wasted no time in getting down to business: By 10 a.m., Huntress had hooked and released six landlocked salmon. Foley had caught and released two more.

They’d also taken some time to hop out of the frigid water and visit the Pine Tree Store, which serves as the town’s clearinghouse of opening-day information.

“[I can wade] for about two hours [without taking a break to warm up],” Huntress said. “But I’m nuts.”

Huntress admitted that he might have been able to stay in the water longer, except for one small equipment malfunction.

“That hole in my waders that was there two years ago is still there, in my right foot,” he said. “But other than that, I’m doing pretty good.”

Kurt Cressey, the good-natured proprietor of the Pine Tree Store, said that in Grand Lake Stream, cold opening-day conditions serve an important purpose.

On days when the fishing is good, freezing fingers and toes offer further encouragement for anglers to share the good fishing spots with others.

“When the water is 32 degrees, there’s no problem with rotation,” Cressey said.

As you might expect, the water flowing out of nearly ice-covered West Grand Lake was a bit nippy. But the day’s weather was a pleasant surprise for some anglers. The wind didn’t blow, and temperatures hovered around 40 degrees.

Balmy? No. Fishable? Sure.

A few inches of overnight snow and slush turned the Dam Pool parking lot into a mucky mess, and some anglers sat down and slid gingerly down the stream bank to avoid embarrassing splashdowns while getting to the water.

Still, nobody was complaining.

It was, after all, opening day.

“This is milder than usual opening-day weather,” said Foley, who has 11 straight Grand Lake Stream openers under his belt. “It’s not as warm as they said it was going to be, but it’s bearable. It’s not raining. It’s not sleeting. No ice in the guides [on the fishing rod]. So we’re doing OK.”

The weekday opener and high gasoline prices (for those not driving modified veggie-mobiles) probably kept the crowd down a bit, and it was easy to find a spot in the typically packed Dam Pool.

Some years, 20 or more anglers vie for position in the pool on opening day. On Tuesday, only eight fished at once during the busiest times, Foley said.

And the fishing? Huntress had no complaints.

“I didn’t expect the fishing to be as good as it is today,” Huntress said. “Everybody, looking around the pool, has been getting in to fish. It hasn’t just been one or two spots. People have been catching fish all around the pool.”

In Grand Lake Stream, tales of fishing success (or failure) always work their way uphill, sooner or later. That means Cressey, whose store is perched on the bank of the stream, ends up with plenty of stories to share with the anglers who stop by to take advantage of the free opening-day coffee or to rest on the popular liar’s bench.

“There are a couple of guys who have already caught their 18 salmon up in the Dam Pool,” Cressey said, not long before noon. “Now they’re going downstream to see if there’s any [fish] in the Hatchery Pool or maybe Little Falls.”

Year after year, anglers target Grand Lake Stream as their opening-day destination, and year after year, they get what they came for.

What that is can vary.

“I think people have to get it out of their system and basically go fishing,” Cressey said, pointing out that after a long winter, fly fishers are eager to dig out their equipment and work out the kinks.

“This is one of my favorite places on opening day. There’s always the variability of whether or not you’re going to find fish,” Huntress said. “This year, because of the flows, it has been nice. There’s a lot of fresh fish [that have dropped down into Grand Lake Stream from the lake] and a lot of real fat fish this year.”

Domtar, which controls the dam at Grand Lake Stream, ran fairly high water into the stream leading up to opening day but reduced those flows Monday and Tuesday to provide better wading conditions.

Foley said knowing he has a good chance to catch a salmon is one thing that draws him back year after year – but that’s not the only thing.

“More than anything, I think it’s just the camaraderie and the tradition. It’s just an opening-day ritual, really.”

For the anglers, to be sure.

But for the local storekeeper, too.

“The swallows come back to Capistrano, and the salmon come back to Grand Lake Stream,” Cressey said.

Some of those fish do return to Grand Lake Stream. Others live in the stream all winter.

Either way, when the season opens, the anglers will be there, and after a long, harsh winter, Cressey will be smiling.

This year, that may be even truer than in years past.

Just take a look at the picture window of the Pine Tree Store, and you’ll find all the evidence you’ll need.

The display isn’t full of fishing gear, nor ice fishing equipment, like it often is.

In January, Kathy Cressey, who owns and runs the store with her husband, decorated the window in a tropical theme, complete with pink flamingos.

“So we sit around and sing Kumbaya,” Kurt Cressey said with a grin. “You can tell we’re getting a little squirrelly. It’s been a long winter.”

jholyoke@bangordailynews.net

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